aaron altar

I’ve found that beginners get apprehensive when mixing and settle for slow fades when sometimes they just need to cut it out. Don’t settle for a compromise, just go for what you want and if it doesn’t work out try something different.

Basically, what you made was a mash up. You took 2 tracks and put them together to make one. When you mix you play an entire set for some period of time. I can’t really offer any advice on mash ups, I’ve never made one and I have no interest in them. From a djing perspective I would want to see how you transition from one track to the next. In the interest of a dj set, the back forth nature of what you did would begin to irritate your audience after a while. In my opinion, when you’re starting out I would recommend working on intro/outro mixing from one track to the next and after you nail that you can move on to more complicated things like live mash ups, etc.

I listened to Homework.

Your transitions seem rushed. Perhaps to avoid the clashing in style and key in some cases. I would recommend you concentrate on playing tracks together for extended periods with equal volume levels so your transitions are smoother. If you want a more high energy style skip the slow fade ups and learn to cut and drop.

Watch the levels, it sounds like it clips in places to me (I’m on crappy headphones at the moment though so I’m not sure).

As far as programming goes. I feel you’re moving between styles way to quickly. You need more than 2 tracks of a particular style to set a vibe. The transition tracks don’t really have enough in common for that. Look at transition tracks that elements of the style you’re moving away from and elements of the style you are transitioning to.

Don’t take it personal and keep at it. Find your personal style and don’t be afraid to go with it. The first 2 tracks could stand some long slow blends the last 2 need higher energy quick mixing. Let the music dictate what you do with it.

It may have been isolated but it was still in the US. Now it’s spread around the world and back. Gotta love it!

To be perfectly honest I’m a little hung over this morning so I’m not really following the second paragraph too well but I’ll try to answer anyway. The original artist holds all rights to a song whether it is remixed or not. You must have their permission in order to release it in any commercial sense. The second paragraph sounds like you’re talking about mash-ups. The same rule applies, you must have the permission of the artists in order to release that in any commercial sense. Now when sampling portions of a track I believe there is some sort of litmus test regarding the “originality” of the portion sampled but you’ll have to look into that more on your own. Two more points: 1. Sometimes labels own the rights to the music and not the artist and 2. Don’t ever ask Carl Cox if you can sell something of his as a digital download, he’ll hunt you down and kill you (much love to Carl, I’m just kidding).

Are you saying that you’ve been promoting yourself and even accepted a gig before you even learned to dj?

x-Kisscut-x, post: 31961, member: 4408 wrote: I can understand if they have asked you personally because they clearly want to hire you for your talent etc

This is the only reason you should be getting asked to play.

With all due respect to Phil’s Digital DJ course, just because you can play two records together at the same time doesn’t mean you should be doing it in front of a crowd. Take the same route we used to back in the day: practice day and night, get involved in the scene, and one day someone will book you for a club night. You can do all the free house parties you want in the meantime, it’s good practice and will prepare you for the day someone pays you to play. Plus, if you play the right parties, ie afterparties and such, it will get your name out there in the scene.

Please don’t destroy the profession by playing legit gigs for free. It ruins it for everyone and is part of what is giving digital djs a bad name (you’re playing before you’re ready).